


The After Hours Special

by ArgentLives



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F, Fluff, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-08 00:16:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5475881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentLives/pseuds/ArgentLives
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iris’s apparent crush on Jitter’s regular Caitlin Snow is actually a lot more than just a crush, but that’s not something her co-workers need to know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The After Hours Special

**Author's Note:**

> Based off of [this gifset](http://bisexualcaitlinsnow.tumblr.com/post/131233713989/snowest-coffee-shop-au-where-barista-iris) and written for day five (coffee shop au) of flarrow femslash week!

“Hey, West, your girl’s here again,” Kendra nudged her, inclining her head toward the door as she finished ringing up their most recent customer: two powered donuts and a large vanilla latte later.

Iris resisted the urge to stick out her tongue at her—because they were at _work_ and she wasn’t five—, instead settling on flicking a bit of powdered sugar her way that the donut she’d just sold had left clinging to her fingers. “Shut _up_ Kendra. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“What I’m talking about is now standing in line, about five customers back, and the girl you’ve been making the most tooth-rottingly sappy heart-eyes at for the past few months.”

Iris _‘hmphed’_ and followed Kendra’s gaze, a petulant _‘I do not’_ at the ready on the tip of her tongue, but it died on her lips as soon as she spotted Caitlin. The woman gave a little start and then a wave, a soft smile spreading across her face as she noticed Iris staring.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Kendra winked at her when she didn’t respond, and Iris mentally cursed herself for the dopey smile she felt tugging at her lips and the fact that she just couldn’t seem to control her facial muscles whenever Caitlin was around. Kendra gestured to the cash register she was currently manning, and then to the machines Iris was standing in front of. “Wanna switch?”

“Don’t you think that’d be a little obvious?” Iris ground out, resisting the urge to look Caitlin’s way again.

“Hey, I’d be doing you a favor,” Kendra rolled her eyes as she rooted through the register for change. “You’d get to talk to her, like, face-to-face for _at least_ thirty seconds.”

“Oh, please, don’t give me that. You just hate register duty.” Iris finished filling up the next customer’s latte, managing, once again, the perfect ratio of coffee-to-foam, and placed it on the counter just as Kendra was dropping change into the man’s palm. “I’m better at this, anyway. Your lattes are shit.”

“Someone’s in a mood,” Kendra scrunched up her nose and stuck her tongue out at her, because she, apparently, _was_ five, before turning back to face the next customer and shrugging it off. “Suit yourself.”

Iris made a face at her friend behind her back, debating whether or not to flick something at her and finally deciding against it as she whirled back around to the coffee machines. Kendra didn’t need to know that she was already working on Caitlin’s drink, having long since memorized her order. She didn’t need to know about the cheesy little heart Iris drew in the foam, or the hastily scrawled _‘8:00?’_ she left on the inside of the lid. And she certainly didn’t need to know that Iris’s gaze followed Caitlin the whole time as she sat down at her usual spot by the window, didn’t need to see the way Caitlin eagerly tore the top off her coffee and the warm smile that lit up her face as she saw the message that awaited her, and the tiny thumbs up she sent Iris’s way to let her know she’d received it.

Nope. That was all for Iris. And she wanted to keep it that way.

 

* * *

 

 

No one really understood why she was always so eager to lock up, to be the last one on duty and therefore in charge of a vast majority of the cleaning, but then again no one was really too keen to argue, considering it meant they all got to leave earlier. Iris had Kendra convinced that she found the cleaning therapeutic—which _, ugh,_ no she didn’t, she was the messiest person she knew next to Barry—, and really, cleaning up dishes and scrubbing crumbs off of tables was a small price to pay for what those quiet after-hours afforded her.

“Hey, stranger,” Iris greeted, grinning wide, as the bells chimed on the door at promptly 8:00 to signify the arrival of her favorite customer. She paused in the middle of wiping down a table, tossing the rag to the side and straightening up as she heard the footsteps get closer, felt someone coming up behind her. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

A pair of arms wrapped around her middle, and she hummed contentedly as Caitlin placed a kiss on her neck in greeting. “Just visiting my favorite barista, of course. And I heard they have the _best_ after-hours special, here.”

“You know we’re closed, right?” Iris turned around to face her with a cheeky grin, and Caitlin shifted a bit to rest her hands at the small of Iris’s back.

Caitlin rolled her eyes, but she was smiling, too. “Well, I do believe this is the time a certain someone told me to meet them here. I would love to stop by and visit my girlfriend at normal hours of the day, but apparently that’s out of the question.” She sighed happily as Iris kissed her cheek in a silent _‘I know, and thank you.’_ “Just…remind me. Why are we hiding again?”

“The teasing,” Iris groaned, burying her face against Caitlin’s shoulder, taking in the sterile scent clinging to her clothes, the result of spending her day all holed up in a lab. “Endless, endless amounts of teasing. If my co-workers here knew that I was actually dating the customer I’ve been hopelessly smitten with since she started coming here regularly three months ago, I’d never here the end of it.”

“For the record, I only started coming here regularly because of you,” Caitlin pointed out, backing Iris up against the table just to hear her breath hitch, smirking in triumph when it did just that. “And I don’t know about your other co-workers, but if Kendra tries to give you any shit for it, well—she’s one to talk. She’s dating Cisco, actually, a friend I work with at STAR Labs—you know him; he comes in here with me sometimes.”

“Wait, _what_?” Iris’s eyes went wide, remembering the cute, long-haired guy that sometimes joined Caitlin on her morning coffee runs before work, apparently Kendra _had_ been flirting with, after all. And here she’d convinced herself she’d just been imagining things. “Oh, that hypocrite. I’m half-tempted to call her up right now and call her out on it; she’s been relentless about you and me. Or me, at least, since I guess she doesn’t know it goes both ways.”

“It definitely does,” Caitlin nodded, pressing up against her until Iris had to hop up on the table to avoid being squished. She brought her legs up to straddle Caitlin’s waist as Caitlin slipped easily into the space between them. “And you could do that, or we could do…something else.”

“Something else sounds good,” Iris breathed, her skin tingling pleasantly as Caitlin trailed her fingers up her thigh, hand slipping underneath her skirt and pushing the material back. “Something else sounds _excellent_.”


End file.
